The Evolution of Juggling: Jay Gilligan at TedxHelsinki

We always knew that the guys at RenegadesignLab were doing something awesome.

But we never really new what it was or why exactly they were doing it.

Then we watched Jay Gilligan’s talk at TedxHelsinki.

We highly recommend anyone who has ever juggled a ball, a ring, or a club take the 26 minutes to watch this video.

Here is the link:

Jay smartly questions how the shapes and sizes of classic juggling props became universally accepted. “Why is this ring like this? Why is it this shape, this thickness, this weight, this material?”

The answers lead to profound and challenging conclusions about the limitless possibilities of the design of juggling props and their interpretive manipulation. From there he and his friends took a giant step through the looking glass and found unexpected creatures on the other side. Props like a club with a hole through the middle; two rings melded together like a figure 8; clubs with flat tops; clubs with scooped out tops; ring like things that are square or triangular instead of round; long sticks with hooks on one side. . . and you can tell that this is only the beginning.

After watching Jay’s talk the world of juggling just seems bigger and more beautiful to us–and makes us want to get a saw and a hot glue gun and see what we can come up with!